VLB future series part 1: The Kids Are Alright
by OriginalPippie
Summary: The Viva La Bam gang in the future. Everyone comes over to Castle Bam to celebrate Bam's 44th birthday, unaware that their kids have an agenda of their own.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one

September 2023

Bam let out a heavy sigh as he looked down at himself. It was a few days before his 44th birthday and he was starting to feel his age. He placed his hands over the belly that he had developed and made a mental note to pick a date next week to start working out again. He didn't mind the grey patches around his temples, or the deepened expression lines around his eyes and mouth, but it irritated him how he let himself get out of shape. He opened the closet door and searched through the hanging shirts.

"Not again!" He groaned before closing the door

He left his bedroom and headed downstairs.

"Yo Stace! Stacey!"  
"WHAT!" Came the feminine voice from the kitchen (in a tone not unlike Bam's)

Bam rolled his eyes, knowing that his niece would have been in the kitchen _again. _The smell of the freshly baked something or other should have given it away. _Takes after Phil _He thought as he reached the kitchen. There the short, slightly pudgy, seventeen year old drummer's daughter stood over the counter, removing cookies from the cookie sheet with a spatula. She didn't even look up once her uncle entered the room.

"Stacey what did you do with my red button-down shirt? I know you took it."  
"I…" She glanced over her shoulder at Bam "I borrowed it but I think Dyllan still has it."  
"Dyllan? He never wears my clothes."  
"Well he was painting earlier and got paint on the shirt he was wearing. So I let him wear my shirt."  
"You mean _my _shirt."  
"Yeah… yeah that's what I mean."  
"Ok where is he now?"  
"He's… doing his yoga." She said, scrunching her face up on the word "yoga"  
Bam shook his head "Great. Thanks Stace." He started to walk away and then came back to swipe a cookie "Ow! Hot!"  
"I just took them out of the oven Uncle Bam."  
"Yeah I don't care." He said with a mouthful of cookie as he walked away.

In the living room an instructional yoga DVD was playing on the TV. Standing there facing the TV, with feet together, eyes closed, and hands held together in front of the chest, was the spitting image of a younger Bam. He was a little bit shorter and his dark brown hair was a little curlier than his father's. Bam stood in the entrance to the room, watching his youngest child. He was always the type of parent who encouraged his kids to express themselves however they wanted. But seeing his son do relaxing activities such as painting or sculpting, meditation or yoga, completely baffled him. He would often look at him and think 'this can not be my son' (Even though he knew that no court in the world would agree with him). But then he would laugh to himself and follow up with the thought 'I just _had _to fall for that fucking hippie chick.'

Bam cleared his throat, which caused his son to jump.

"Geeze. Scared the shit out of me."  
"Dyl you wearing my red shirt?"  
Dyllan looked down at himself and tugged at the bottom of his shirt"This is yours? I got this from Stacey."  
"Yeah and she stole it from my closet again. Could you take it off? I want to wear it."  
"Fine." Dyllan unbuttoned a couple of the buttons and pulled the shirt over his head. Beneath it was a tight black tank top that showed off his buff physique "God damn this is like musical fucking shirts." He said with a laugh in his voice as he handed his dad the shirt  
Bam took the shirt and ran his thumb over his son's exposed bicep, as if to wipe dirt off of it "Well what do you have here? Is that a new tattoo?"  
"Um… yeah. It's a phoenix… You're not mad that I got it without your permission, are you?"  
"Dyllan look at my body. Do I look like I give a fuck whether my son has a tattoo or not?" He held his left wrist out "Besides what does that say?"  
"DILLIGAF." He rolled his eyes "Yeah yeah. I've always said you have great parenting skills, dad."  
"Well you turned out great. I must have done something right." Bam said as he started to walk away  
"Mom raised me too." Dyllan said under his breath  
Bam turned around "What was that?"  
"I said MOM raised me TOO."  
"You think that's supposed to hurt me?"  
"No."  
"Good. Now finish up your yoga and get ready."  
"For what?"  
"Everyone is coming over soon."  
"Really? What's going on?"  
"We'll decide once everyone is here." He said with a smile  
"Oh this should prove entertaining as usual."  
"You know it." Bam rolled up the shirt and snapped it on Dyllan's butt before walking away. "Oh by the way Sam's coming here too and she's going to stay through my birthday. So I don't want you two fighting the whole time."  
"Samantha's coming too?" He whined  
"Did I stutter? Yes she's coming. Now please be nice to her."  
"Do I have to?"  
"She's your SISTER!"  
"Fine I'll be nice. But only because of your birthday."  
"Thank you."

Bam walked into the kitchen where he saw his niece mixing up another batch of cookies.

"Do you ever stop baking?" He laughed  
"I do. You know it's uncanny, Uncle Bam."  
"What?"  
"You and Dyllan out there. Despite your interests, you two are exactly the same." She smiled  
Bam sat down on a stool and sighed "Don't remind me."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

Bam gazed out the window to try to figure out what could have been making "all of that noise" out in his driveway.

"What the fuck? Is that Dico all ready?"  
He walked out of the door and saw a familiar, young man approaching the house with a big grin.  
"Jason!" Bam shouted to the seventeen year old "Is that you making that noise?"  
Jason laughed (which sounded remarkably like his father's laugh) "No that's my dad's new dog. He had to bring him over to show you."  
"New dog? Since when did he get a dog?"  
"Just a month ago. He woke up one day and said he was going to the pound to tease the dogs. And when he came home he…" Jason looked over his shoulder once he was interrupted by a deep throated, growl-like "woo woo woo!" sound "He had that dog." Jason finished, almost not missing a beat

They heard a car door slam and looked toward the driveway.

"Rake Jr.! You get back here you stinky dumbass dog!" Dico shouted as he tried to catch up with a dog that just ran out of the car

A big reddish-brown, shaggy-haired dog ran past Bam and Jason, barking (or more appropriately "woo woo-ing"), and ran over to some grass. The dog immediately began rolling around on the grass, letting out a "woo" every few seconds. Dico decided to let the dog roll around, and went up to his son.

"Phew." Dico laughed "That damn dog is hard to catch."  
Bam started laughing as he watched the dog roll around "What did you name him?"  
"Rake Jr., of course. As soon as I smelled him in that pound, I knew he was the dog version of Rake."  
"Smelled? Don't you mean saw?"  
"Oh no, I mean _smelled _. Go ahead, go up to him and take a big whiff. He's the stinkiest fucking dog ever. And doesn't he look just like Rake?" He finished with a laugh  
"I'll take your word about his smell, Dic." Bam said as he looked at the dog "Yeah, now that you mention it, he does look like Rake!"  
"And of course you heard that bark of his." Jason chimed in "Sounds just like Dad's "Rake" voice!" He laughed as well

The three of them continued to laugh over the dog. They almost didn't even notice once Dico's daughters came up to them.

"Oh hey. There's the twins." Bam said, looking towards the girls "How have you been?" he asked as he gave them each a hug  
"We're fine." The twins said simultaneously  
Bam smiled "Don't you two ever speak at different times?" He teased  
They smiled "Yes, Bam." They laughed, having spoken together on purpose that time  
"Is Ava here? I brought my skateboard." Jade said  
"Yeah she and Stacey are both inside. Why don't you two go in and say hello?"  
"Ok Bam." Janice said. She looked at her sister and whispered "How much do you want to bet that Stacey's been baking again?"  
"Oh that's probably a safe bet." Jade smirked as they headed toward the house

Right as they had reached the door, Dyllan walked out, almost running into them.

"Oh hey girls." He said with a smile "Jade, Janice." He gave them each a nod as he said their name  
"Hi Dyllan!" They said at the same time with a giggle at the end  
"I hope you know, Dyllan…" Janice sang sweetly "That you and my dad are the only ones left on earth that I'll ever allow to call me by my full first name." She grinned  
"Oh yeah? You really don't mind that I don't call you "Jay" like every on else?"  
"Of course not Dyllan. I like the way you say my name."  
"Oh, um, ok." He looked up past the girls toward Jason "Yo! DiCamillo!" He walked past them and went outside

Jade playfully slapped her sister on the back of the arm.

"Jay you are SO in love with him, it's not even funny!"  
"You love him too and you know it."  
"Yeah that's true but I don't gush all over him with every single thing that he says to me, like you do."  
"Shut up!" She said, sticking out her tongue

Jade and Jay entered the house further in search of the two Margera sisters they had come to see. Not much to their surprise they found Stacey in the kitchen. She sat on a stool reading a magazine.

"Hey Stace!" Jay greeted  
Stacey looked up from her magazine with a smile "Oh hi! I didn't hear you two come in."  
"Yeah we're kind of sneaky that way." Said Jay as she pulled up a stool "Ooh…" She eyeballed the cooling cookies  
Stacey chuckled "You can have one. Another batch is in the oven baking."  
"Thanks." Jay reached over and grabbed a cookie and began to eat it with the infamous DiCamillo touch  
Jade rolled her eyes and then looked at Stacey "So, your sister around? I was hoping to go skating with her."  
"Yeah, the last thing I knew, she was upstairs in one of the guestrooms."  
"Ok, thanks." She patted Jay on the back as she walked by, nearly causing her to choke "Enjoy your cookie, sis."

Jade walked upstairs and stopped by the closed door of one of the guestrooms. She could hear Ava's voice through the door, which gave away that room as the one that she was in. Jade opened the door and walked into the room. Ava lay across the bed, looking up toward the ceiling with a smile, and talking to someone on her cell phone. Her eyes were bright and glittered as she spoke. Jade stood by the bed and cleared her throat as she gazed down at Ava. Ava jumped, startled by Jade, and sat up.

"Hold on, Wolf." She placed her hand over the phone and looked at Jade "I'm on the phone." She said with a "parent" tone  
"Who with?"  
"Just… someone I met at college."  
"A guy?'  
"Maybe." She grinned  
"It's a guy!"  
"You don't know that!" She said, blushing  
"Well how many girls do you know named "Wolf"?"  
"Oh you heard that?" Jade nodded "Ok my parents don't know about him yet, but I've been seeing this guy at school, Wolfgang. He's a foreign exchange student from Finland and man is he ever gorgeous!"  
"Wolfgang, huh?" Jade smirked  
"Yeah." She giggled "I've never met any one like him before. So, what did you want?"  
"Oh I just wanted to know if you wanted to go skating with me."  
"Oh sure, just give me a second to hang up."  
"Ok I'll meet you downstairs." Jade smiled and then left the room

She went back down to the kitchen where Jay and Stacey were still sitting and talking. She sat down on a stool and gave them an "I know something you don't know" look.

Jay looked at her and smirked "Spill it!"  
"What?"  
"I know when you have something juicy to say, so spill it bitch!"  
"Ok. I walked in on Ava when she was talking to someone on the phone."  
Stacey looked up at her intently "Yeah, and?"  
"Go on."  
"I found out that she was talking to a guy from school."  
"Av never told me about any guy!" Stacey said with a slight squeal  
"Yeah and it turns out that she's been seeing this Wolfgang guy."  
"WOLFGANG!" They howled in unison  
"Yes, Wolfgang. He's from Finland, and apparently very, very attractive."  
"Ooh… sounds like sis has gotten lucky!"  
"Stacey!"  
"I didn't mean _that! _"

The three of them looked up once Ava entered the room. She waltzed over to where they sat and pulled up a stool. She then picked up a cookie and ate it into the shape of a heart. The other three girls looked at her with a grin as she sat there looking at her heart-shaped cookie. Ava glanced up at them.

"What?" She asked, not knowing that she was still smiling  
"Av, I've never seen you like this before." Stacey said to her eighteen year old sister  
"Like what?" She ran her finger around the edge of her cookie  
"Ava it's so obvi-fucking-ous." Stacey stated "You're in love."  
"I am not. I don't know what you're talking about."  
"Sure you do. You know you can't hide it, it's written all over you. My big sister is in love. So, this Wolfgang must be something special, huh?"  
Ava looked down and blushed "Yeah he… wait how did you..." She glared at Jade "You told!"  
Jade laughed "I couldn't help it! They would have beaten it out of me if I didn't!"  
"Yeah ok. So are we going to go skate or what?"  
"Oh yeah sure. Let me get my board out of my dad's car."

Jade got up and walked toward the door, and Ava went back upstairs. Once both girls had their skateboards, they went outside and over to the ramp to skate.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

Dico had finally been able to catch Rake Jr. and put him on a leash. He held firmly onto the leash as the dog sat there near his feet. Rake Jr. wiggled and tugged trying to break free from the leash. He was the kind of dog who wanted nothing more than to run around and bark happily, but now he was being made to sit and be good. He hated the leash with a passion because it kept him from straying far from his master. Dico gave the leash a little tug once Rake Jr. started to make an attempt at chewing at the leash.

"You're not going to make a break for it. I just got you to settle down." He looked up toward the ramp where the two girls were. After watching them skate for a minute he went up to the ramp, practically dragging the dog behind him "Jade! What are you doing up there?"  
Jade stopped skating and scoffed "Dad I'm skating with Ava. What do you think I'm doing?"  
"You're about to fall and crack your head open! Where's your helmet?"  
"Dad you're embarrassing me!"  
"No I'm not! Now you go put your helmet on!"  
"Dad I'm an adult, okay?"  
"No you're not. You're only sixteen; you won't be technically an adult for a couple more years. But that doesn't matter since I'd be telling you to wear a helmet even once you're twenty-five! Now you go to the car, get your helmet, and put it on before you start skating some more! You hear me?"  
Jade sighed, aggravated, and rolled her eyes "Yes FATHER. But Ava doesn't have to wear a helmet when she's skating." She said as she hopped down off of the ramp  
"AVA isn't my daughter. Besides the Margera's are crazy, just look at Bam for that proof." He said as he gently pulled her along

It didn't take very long before the others showed up and gathered in the backyard. Dunn and his daughter, Brianne, were amongst the last ones to arrive. Brianne tossed her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder after getting out of the car, and reached into her purse for a card. Dunn reached around from behind her and snatched up the card from her hand and began to walk away. She caught up to him trying to get the card away, but he held it from her reach.

"Dad!"  
"What? Is this yours?" He asked with a smirk  
"Yes! Now give it to me!"  
"I don't think so." He opened the card and held it close as he cold to his face, squinting to read what was written inside. "Bree what the hell did you write in here? I can barely make it out."  
Brianne lightly smacked him in the back of the head and took the card out of his hand "Dad, mom and I have been telling you for months that you need glasses."  
"I do not! The light's just bad out here."  
"Uh-huh." She said skeptically "You don't need to know what it says, it's not for you any way."  
"Who's it for? Darren?" He smirked  
"Dad you know we broke up a long time ago." She scoffed while rolling her eyes "It's a birthday card for Christene."  
"Christene? Kind of late for her birthday, isn't it?"  
"Yeah I know, but we missed each other's birthday this year."  
"Oh I see."

Brianne Dunn and Christene Raab were best friends. They were born exactly one day apart, Christene being born first, and since they were little they had a tradition to give each other a special birthday card for their birthdays every year.

The blonde-haired girl watched the footage on the video camera she held in her hands as she walked. She didn't care if she was about to run into anything or any one. All she cared about at that moment was watching what she recorded on the way over to Bam's house. She glanced up from the screen for a second and spotted Bam.

"Bam! Yo Bam!" She shouted, trying to get his attention "Yo! Turn up your hearing aid you old man!" She laughed, starting to approach him  
Bam turned around to face her once she was close enough "What do you want?" He smiled at the seventeen year old girl "Oh why if it isn't Raableen Herself! What do you have there?"

Christene grinned at Bam. She always kind of hated that nickname, yet she adored it at the same time because it was yet another thing she had in common with her father. She showed him the screen on the camera.

"Check out what I shot on the way over here."  
"Is that from the car?"  
"Yup."  
"How did you get than angle?" He asked, impressed  
"I was in the backseat lying down and I just aimed my camera until I got a good picture. Check it out you can hear my dad laughing at me in the background!"  
Bam laughed "Yeah you can. Hey you've really improved on your camera work. Where are you going to work on your next movie?"  
"As soon as a good idea comes along."  
"Well Brianne's the writer; she'll be able to come up with something. As soon as you have a movie finished I want to see it."  
"Sure thing! Hey can I use your computer? I want to edit this footage. I got a couple other tapes that I want to edit too." She said as she held out the camera bag that hung over her shoulder  
"Sure. You know how everything works. Probably better than me."  
"Thanks!"

Christene ran up to the house only stopping to tackle Brianne and Dyllan to the ground. Brianne stood up and glared at her while Dyllan remained on the ground in a bout of laughter.

"Hey!" Dyllan laughed "What the fuck was that for, you bitch!"  
Christene just laughed and went inside.

Brianne and Dyllan smirked at each other devilishly. Dyllan gave her a nod and then whispered.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"  
"My idea probably sucks compared to yours, but what's new?" She whispered back  
"Whatever. Let's just go in and get her back." He glanced over at Jason "Yo Jase! C'mere!" He whispered loudly  
Jason walked up to them "What s it?"  
"Shh!" Dyllan hushed "We're going to play a prank on Christene. You in?"  
Jason perked up with an evil grin that made him look even more like his father "Oh hell yeah! What's the plan?"  
"Uhm…" Dyllan looked at Brianne, who just shook her head with a shrug "I dunno yet. But I think she went in to edit some film."  
Jason's face lit up as if a light bulb hung above his head "Hey, Dyl, you still got that box of fake spiders and shit?"  
"Yeah, uh…" He grinned "Oh! Come on it's up in my room. Let's go."

Dyllan ushered Jason and Brianne inside and up to his room. Meanwhile, Bam, Dico and Dunn stood back watching their offspring. Dico chuckled and shook his head.

"They're up to something good. I can tell." He said  
"Yeah. Sure brings back memories, doesn't it?" Asked Dunn  
"Sure does. They are so much like we were when we were that age." Bam let out a little sigh "Why don't we do that kind of stuff any more? Playing pranks on each other and shit?"  
"We're too fucking old! That's why!" Dunn laughed  
"Hey you two are older than me. I can still handle it."  
"Yeah right, Bam. I tried pranking you a few weeks ago, remember with that rubber snake? You damn near had a heart attack!" Dico laughed  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah I remember. Very funny Dic." Bam rolled his eyes  
"Dad!" Came the shout of a familiar female voice

All three men turned their heads toward the voice, a habitual reaction to the word "dad". Bam smiled broadly and approached her. Immediately he wrapped his arms around her, giving her a bear hug and a big kiss on the cheek.

"Sam I missed you so much! Don't leave me for that long again little girl!"  
She blushed a little as she smiled, pulling away from her father "Nice to see you too, dad. And please stop calling me a little girl. I'm a nineteen year old fully grown woman in case you haven't noticed."  
Bam sighed, his smile fading a little "Yeah I noticed. But can't you just let me pretend? Besides you're always going to be my little girl."  
"Yeah I know." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and touched the end of his nose with her index finger "I really don't mind."

This caused Bam to smile and his heart to skip a beat. He just adored his daughter, and still would do any thing for her if she needed it. To him she was still a miracle. She came into his and her mother's life shortly after Jenn had a miscarriage and Bam had beaten cancer. Bam and Jenn had given up trying for another baby after the miscarriage, but much to their surprise, Jenn found out that she was pregnant. Sadly, however, shortly after their daughter Samantha was born, Bam and Jenn's relationship started to fall apart. Bam knew that Samantha looked just like Jenn, except she had his eyes and smile. She had much of Jenn's personality as well, the "good parts" of her personality as Bam put it. Bam admitted before, though during a fight with Jenn, that their daughter was the only good thing that she ever gave to him, the only thing that he could remain happy and grateful for after he and Jenn broke up.

Jenn came walking up to them with a grin on her face and an envelope in her hand. She looked right at Bam and held the envelope in between her fingers, moving it from hand to hand.

"Hello Bam."  
He looked at her seriously and gave her a nod "Jenn."  
"So um," She bit her lower lip and extended her hand, handing him the envelope "I know your birthday isn't for a few more days, but I got this for you any way."  
"You got me a card?"  
"Yeah, well, I was thinking about you and had to get it."  
"Mom, I reminded you on the way over here that Dad's birthday was coming up."  
"Really?" Bam replied, with an intrigued tone as he took the envelope  
Samantha looked at him "Yeah, she stopped at the drug store on the way over here just to get it. She didn't even take the time to look through the cards first. I'm not even sure if she signed it."  
Bam looked at the card in his hand, turning it over a couple times, and then looked at Jenn "So you really didn't care about me. I should have known."  
"I care about you! If I didn't care, I wouldn't have even taken the time to _stop _at the store, now would I?"  
Bam looked at the card again and sighed "You really shouldn't have gotten this for me, Jenn."  
"Bam, please, just accept the card. I'm trying to be nice for once."  
"Hmmm…" He handed her the card back "No."  
"No?'  
"Yeah, I'm not accepting the card, Jenn."  
"When are you going to appreciate something from me?"  
"Well let's see, when you stop being a bitch, when you stop treating my wife like shit, when you stop trying to tell my son what to do, when you stop using our daughter to get what you want, even though she's a fully grown woman." He paused long enough to look over at Samantha letting her know that he finally acknowledged that fact "Oh and what am I forgetting? When you apologize for all of the times when you scared my ex-girlfriend Missy half to death, by coming into MY home drunk and screaming things directed to her, and for the times when you broke your restraining order. When you apologize for the times you made me look like an asshole liar just because you were all bitter about our breakup. And lastly when you finally realize that the two of us are never going to be able to have what we had even before we started going out. Does that make it clear to you?"  
"Well fine, Bam! Have your own way as always!" She said, red in the face with fury "I'll just take this fucking card and leave right now. I'll do you a big fucking favor and you'll never have to see me ever again, Brandon Margera!"  
"Good! Get off of my property!"

Jenn stormed away and got in her car, speeding away without looking back.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

Samantha looked at Bam with a frown after her mom left.

"What?" He asked, calming down "That was really cold, Dad."  
"What? Me?"  
"Yes you! There was no reason for you to treat her that way."  
"I'm sorry, Samantha, but you're plenty old enough to hear this. Your mother is a bitch, and she has been a bitch since before you were born. And after you were born she's been doing nothing but make my life a living hell."  
"Fine. Whatever. But remember, she _is _my mom." Samantha said curtly before walking away

A loud scream and a crash came from inside of Bam's house. Raab, hearing his daughter scream, ran inside to see what had happened. He entered Bam's editing room to see Dyllan, Jason and Brianne on the floor frantically digging through the rubble from an overturned desk.

"What's going on in here? Where's Christene?' Raab asked, trying not to sound worried (which he very much was)  
Dyllan looked up at him with a look that was a mixture of panic and amusement "Raab we're trying to dig her out right now." He said while pulling away piles of papers  
Raab's eyes widened "Dig her out! What the hell happened!" He rushed over to them and got down on the floor in front of the desk  
"We went to prank her and it sort of went wrong." Jason tried to explain "We scared her with these fake spiders and some how that caused the entire desk to fall over onto her."  
"Well don't just fucking sit there! Help me pick the desk up!" Raab exclaimed as he grabbed one end of the desk

Raab, Jason and Dyllan carefully lifted the desk up while Brianne picked up papers, tapes, and other things that were on and around the desk at the time.

"Christene? Are you all right sweetie?" Raab asked as they finished pushing the desk out of the way "Christene?" He paused and looked at a bulge beneath the pile of tapes and computer disks "Oh God please let her be all right. Please let her be all right." He muttered as he began to lift more things off of his daughter

The other three of them began to dig into the pile until they had Christene uncovered. Raab saw her crack her eyes open and he bent down and scooped her up in his arms. He cradled her and he kissed her on top of her head.

"You ok? You hurt?" He asked as he checked her out  
"W-what happened?" She asked with a slightly weak voice  
"You had a freak desk accident, Christene." Brianne said  
"Yeah, sort of a drive-by desk overturning." Jason added with a chuckle to lighten the mood  
Christene looked at her friends and shook her head a little "You fucking morons." She grabbed her arm and cringed "Ahh! My arm!" She said, followed by a hiss  
Raab gently took her arm in his hands and began to poke and prod at it in places "Can you move it?"  
"No." She said with another cringe  
"Ok, come on I'm taking you to the emergency room. Your arm's broken."

Raab helped his daughter up and led her over to the door. He turned to the other three teenagers and shook his head in disappointment.

"I hope you three have learned something here." He said sternly  
The three of them hung their heads shamefully and spoke at the same time in a low monotone voice "We're sorry."  
"Well that's good enough for now. You three better get this room cleaned up before Bam comes in here."

He ushered Christene out the door and downstairs. Finally making it inside to see what was going on, Bam, Dunn and Dico went up to Raab and the injured Christene.

"What happened?" Bam asked, concerned  
Raab looked at the three of them "Why don't you go ask your children. I have to get her to the emergency room." He answered curtly before walking away  
The three of them looked at Raab and then at each other, stunned. Stacey came out of the kitchen right as Dyllan, Jason and Brianne came downstairs.  
"What's going on?" Stacey asked  
Bam folded his arms across his chest and his expression grew serious once he saw the other three entering the room "Yes, that's what I'd like to know."  
Dico and Dunn looked at their own kids, just as seriously as Bam looked at Dyllan.  
"So," Dico asked while looking at Jason "Would you know why Raab was taking Christene to the hospital?"  
"I uh…" Jason looked down and rubbed the back of his neck  
"You better answer me boy!"  
Dunn put a hand in front of Dico to hold him back "Take it easy! I'm sure they didn't do, whatever they did to Christene, intentionally to hurt her." He looked at his daughter, who had her head down shamefully "Brianne what happened up there?"  
"Well…"  
"Bree look at me when you talk to me."  
Brianne sighed and looked at her father "Christene was editing some film and Dyllan and Jason decided to play a prank on her. Dyllan got those stupid little fake spiders from his room and he was going to scare her with them."  
Bam looked at Dyllan, once she said that "Is that right, Dyl?"  
Dyllan nodded "But we didn't think that any one would possibly get that scared of them! I'll show them to you right now and you'll laugh at how fucking obviously fake they are!"  
"Dyllan that's enough." Bam said firmly "What caused her to get hurt like that?"  
"She jumped up and screamed over the spiders that we dropped on the desk, and some how that caused the desk to fall over on top of her."  
"Dyllan please. You can't expect me to believe that. Dunn's picked things out of his beard that were more believable than that story." He said as he pointed to Dunn  
Jason sighed "Ok here's the thing. Brianne dropped the spiders onto the desk, which caused Christene to scream. Dyllan and I went on either side of the desk and knocked it over. We thought that she moved out of the way, but the desk fell on top of her. That's the absolute truth."  
"Ok well why didn't you just say that to begin with?" Dico asked. He then pointed to all three of them "You better start thinking of a way to apologize to Christene and make this up to her once she comes back."  
"Yes sir." They said in unison, just like they did to Raab  
"And you better hope that nothing's seriously wrong with her too." Dunn added  
"Yes sir." The repeated the same way  
"And if there's any damage in my editing room, in any way shape or form, the three of you are paying for the repaired. Even if you have to work off your debt doing odd jobs around the house. You got that?" Bam replied  
"Yes sir."  
"And that means more than your usual chores around here, Dyllan."  
"I got it Dad. Is this little lecture over with now?"  
"Yes, now you kids go outside for a while." Bam said "You too Stace."  
"Ok Uncle Bam."

The four teens walked away and went outside like Bam had told them. Bam sighed heavily and ran his hands through his hair. Dunn shook his head as Dico looked like he was about to start pacing.

"Shit…" Bam muttered "They're seventeen years old and they're acting like they're five."  
"Yeah I know. They're just like we used to be." Dico said, using Dunn's shoulder for an elbow rest  
Dunn glanced at Dico's elbow and then rolled his eyes "They're trying to kill us, I swear."  
"Yeah, by making us realize what it's like to be around people just as crazy as we were when we were younger." Added Bam

The three of them nodded in agreement and then looked at each other. They started to laugh at the same time, not even noticing someone enter the room.

"What's so funny?" She asked with a grin  
"Oh! Hey Gina, we didn't hear you come in." Bam said to his wife before continuing to laugh  
She put an arm around her husband and gave him a kiss on the cheek "So, what's so funny?"  
"We're just… sort of reminiscing." Dunn said  
"Do I even want to know?" Gina asked  
"Oh just, realizing how much our kids remind us of ourselves when we were their age." Dico answered  
"Oh I see. So what are the kids up to?"  
"Well um… What do you mean?"  
"I just came home to hear this commotion upstairs and I figured it had something to do with the kids."  
"Gina, let's just say I have a feeling Christene might be coming back with a cast or something."  
Gina's eyes widened "Why? What happened?"  
"It's a long story." Bam placed an arm around her waist and started to walk away with her "I'll tell you all about it in our room." He glanced back at Dico and Dunn with a smirk that read "I'll be back later".

Once Bam and Gina were out of the room, Dunn and Dico looked at each other and shook their heads.

"There they go again." Dunn said  
"Yeah it's surprising that they only have one kid together, as often as they do it." Laughed Dico "And Bam will use any situation or excuse just to get her in bed and she usually goes along with it!"  
"I know. If only I could do that with my wife. I should ask Bam how he does it."  
"Eew."  
"Not _that_. Oh never mind." He said as he turned away to go back outside


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

It was the next morning and much had calmed down. Everyone had stayed over and they had been hanging out and acting just like old times the night before. The sun shone down on the deck where Samantha and her boyfriend Nick Glomb sat. Nick sat in a low deck chair with Samantha sitting in between his legs and her head resting against his stomach. He held his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. It didn't surprise Bam or Glomb that their kids wound up seeing each other but they liked to joke that Samantha and Glomb's younger son, Darren, were better suited for each other just for the namesake. However the couple didn't find it very funny and neither did Darren.

Dyllan walked out onto the deck with a cup of tea in his hand. He padded over with his bare feet, which were mainly covered by his grey and blue pajama bottoms, and sat down at the table as annoyingly as possible. (Obnoxious fake yawning, scratching certain parts of his body and then smelling his fingers afterward, inhaling all the saliva in his mouth and spitting a huge was out towards the yard, sitting down as hard and noisily as possible and making sure that he gave his older sister a great crotch shot… the whole nine yards and more.) Samantha scoffed and turned her head in disgust.

"Do you _have _to do that?"  
"Do what?" He asked innocently before sloppily slurping his tea  
"Dude that's real gross." Nick complained  
Dyllan wiped his mouth across his shirt sleeve "What do you want?"  
"God damn, Dyllan, could you be any more annoying?" Groaned his sister  
"I could. I'm actually holding back right now."  
"Uh-huh."  
"I am!" he laughed "Like I could drag out my fucking potter's wheel and set it up over there and just make the biggest mess ever with the wet clay, or I could go back inside and wake the DiCamillo's up and have them come out here to eat their breakfast in front of you guys. And you know how they eat."  
Nick and Samantha grimaced "Yeah too well."  
"Dude that's some of the grossest stuff I ever witnessed. Well… since Vito stopped coming around."  
Samantha looked at Nick "You do know that Vito _died _right?"  
"Yeah that's what I meant."  
"But Dad'll still make it seem like Vito's here by making that tattoo "talk"." Dyllan laughed "Dude I swear Dad and his friends are more immature than we are sometimes."  
"Yeah I know." Samantha snickered "It is hard to tell who the parents are sometimes."

The three of them began to laugh, not even realizing or caring how loud they were being. Dunn and Raab peered out the door towards the teenagers, looking like they had just been woken up.

"What's so funny out here?" Raab asked with a yawn  
"Oh you guys just missed a whole big thing. It was awesome." Dyllan explained with a smirk that made him look even more like his father  
"Yeah ok." Dunn nodded "Just take 'er easy with the laughing."  
"Yeah some of us are still trying to sleep in here." Raab finished with a slap on Dunn's butt before walking inside

Dunn looked back at Raab confused and then went back inside. The three teenagers looked at each other with matching smiles, trying to hold their laughter back. They all burst out laughing at the same time.

"Those two I swear…" Nick said with a shake of his head  
"Yeah I know. They're both married to really hot women, but when they're together it's like,"  
"They're a bit more than friends!" Samantha finished Dyllan's statement  
Dyllan laughed and pointed to his sister "Yeah Raab and Dunn are secret lovers, man!" he said in the voice that Bam and Raab would often use to be funny  
Samantha smirked at Dyllan "You know Dyl… I used to wonder if you and Mark Novak were lovers before. I'm still not sure sometimes."  
Dyllan looked at her puzzled, with his mouth open some "Huh?"  
Samantha and Nick laughed together "It's not true, is it?" Nick asked with a grin  
"No."

They all laughed again and went into another conversation. Inside the house Rake Jr. held a slobber-covered leash in his mouth. He brought the leash over to where a sleeping Dico lay and nicely rested the leash across Dico's face. Dico cracked his eyes open and slid the wet leash off of his face and onto the floor beside his make-shift bed. He then yawned and closed his eyes again.

"Jase go take the dog out."  
"Why me?" Jason replied sleepily from across the room  
"Because he wants to go out."  
"But he wants _you _to let him out, not _me _."  
"I know but you're my son and I can ask you to do whatever I want you to do. And I don't feel like getting up."  
Jason sighed as he sat up "You lazy fuck."  
"You better believe it. Now let Rake Jr. out."

Jason stood up and then walked over to where his father was. He picked up the leash and shook his head at his dad.

"Come on boy." He said to the dog before attaching the leash to the dog's collar

He led Rake Jr. outside on the leash, but it took the dog a little while to find the perfect spot to relieve himself on. Once he had finished urinating in the perfect spot (which happened to be right on Vito's old car that was imbedded in cement in the drive way) he looked up towards the sound of a new arrival. A day late, Rake had finally shown up at Bam's house, and had just got out of his car. Rake Jr. spotted Rake and broke free from Jason's grasp, dragging the leash behind him as he ran.

"Rake Jr.!" Jason called "Get your ass back here!"  
It was too late because the dog had all ready had Rake pinned to the ground. Rake Jr. stood over Rake's leg and began to hump it happily.  
"Yo!" Rake shouted "Get this thing off of me!"  
Jason laughed once he made it up to Rake and Rake Jr. He grabbed his stomach and doubled over as he howled in laughter.  
"Rake Jr.! You found yourself a girlfriend!"  
"Yeah very funny, asshole. Get this dog off of my leg!"  
"But he just started. I say let him keep going."  
Christene, with a broken arm in a sling and a video camera in her hand, walked up to Jason with a laugh.  
"I got it all on tape!"  
"You did? Great! Now we can show everyone!"  
"That's the plan!"

The two of them looked over at Rake and laughed as Rake managed to wiggle free of the dog. Rake stood up, none too pleased, and headed towards the house.

"Sorry Rake!" Christene shouted towards him  
"I'm not!" Jason added "Rake Jr. and your leg make a wonderful couple! I hope the two of them are very happy together!" he laughed and then looked at Christene after Rake went inside "So how's your arm?" He asked while getting Rake Jr.  
"It fuckin' hurts. But I'll be fine."  
"You know we're really, really sorry about it."  
"Yeah I know. You guys have apologized 400 times last night. It's all ready starting to get old."  
"Yeah I bet it is. But, man, I have never seen your dad like that before."  
She rolled her eyes "He always gets like that when "his baby girl" is hurt or in danger. But a couple drinks later he's back to being the same old "Raab Himself". I've quickly grown to accept that about him." She finished with a grin  
Jason pointed to the camera in her hand "Hey let's get everyone lese and watch that together."  
"Yeah, but I'd like to edit it first, to make it extra funny."  
"Can I help?"  
"Sure."  
"Oh hey I just got a great idea!"  
"What is it?"  
"It's still coming to me, but I know it's going to be great, especially once we get the others involved."  
"Ooh… do tell."

He placed a friendly arm around her shoulders and he held firm onto Rake Jr.'s leash as they started walking to the house. She listened closely to him as he explained his idea.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Laughter exploded from inside the living room where the eleven teenagers (ranging from age sixteen to nineteen) sat watching what Christene had recorded outside. Upon hearing this loud, youthful laughter, the six parents and one childless Rake entered the room to see that was so funny to their children. The teens were gathered on the floor in front of the television set, with the footage on the screen on pause.

"What's going on in here?" Asked Gina with a grin  
"Christene was just showing up the tape pf what she shot outside!" Answered Ava as she wiped a tear away from her eye  
"Well if this is anything like her last one, I want to see this." Bam said as he walked over to the couch with a smile  
"Yeah! Nick, go rewind it!"  
Nick looked at jade "Why do I have to rewind it?"  
Jay threw the remote to him, nearly hitting him in the head with it "Because you have the remote!" She said with a laugh before giving her sister a high five

Nick rolled his eyes and then pressed the button on the remote that rewound the tape. All of the adults gathered around to watch the tape, and the teens situated themselves again to where they would be more comfortable. Jade and Jay each took a seat on either side of Dyllan, sitting a half an inch away from actually touching him. They peeked around his back at each other with a matching grin before turning their heads back towards the screen. Dyllan leaned back and placed his hands on the floor behind him. He knew that the twins had a big crush on him but he would never act upon it for a few reasons. One of his reasons being that he didn't want the twins to wind up tearing each other to shreds if he decided to pursue one of them and not the other.

Stacey sat close to Jason but they still gave each other enough space to be comfortable. It had been a while since their last, and rather sloppily-drunk, attempt at letting their raging hormones get the best of them, but neither of them had even spoken about it to their friends or parents. They were the type of couple that wasn't a couple, who wouldn't, for any reason, kiss and tell. The last time someone found out that they had been necking in secret, turned out to be a night they would always remember, but for very bad reasons. (And Christene was still holding the tape for ransom) From that point on, they and anyone else wasn't sure what to think of their relationship what wasn't a relationship.

Brianne was seated in between Ava and Ava's cousin Samantha. Samantha had taken her usual spot of half in Nick's lap and half in front of him. Brianne looked over towards Christene and sighed. Even though they were best friends, she still could not get over the fact that Christene had started seeing her ex-boyfriend Darren. She was happy for the two of them and thought they had made a cute couple, but seeing them together often put her into an awkward place emotionally. She looked over further and saw Darren lightly touch Christene's cast with a "poor baby" pout. Brianne turned her head away and looked at the screen.

As everyone began to watch the tape, they began to laugh ant once. The tape was of Rake's leg providing pleasure for Rake Jr. in the driveway, all made much more comical with the added voiceover done by Jason. The clip reminded five of the men about the picnic scene from their old "CKY" days, since it was very similar to it. Dico even couldn't believe, very proudly however, that his son was so good at imitating one of his own voices. All of the adults agreed then that Jason DiCamillo was very much the chip off the DiCamillo block, in every way imaginable. This produced an annoyed groan of sheer disgust from the lad himself.

"Aw! Does that man I'm going to be bald before I'm 30 too?"  
"Hey, it's not my fault you got mostly my genes." Was his father's retort "You could have been smart and taken some genes from your mother to prevent that part, but no… you had to turn out just like me." He finished with an exaggerated tone to his voice

That's when everyone, Jason reluctantly at first, began to laugh again and started sharing stories and comments of how much the teenagers compared to their parents. During a brief break in the conversation, someone had brought up the point of how much Rake Jr. was like the real Rake. All but Rake enjoyed that comment.

After a little while Jess showed up with mail in his hand and greeted his daughters. He looked at his younger brother and tossed a small package towards him.

"What's this?" Questioned Bam, looking at the package in his lap  
"What do you think?"  
"But my birthday isn't until tomorrow."  
"So? Just open the damn thing, asshole." He said with a slight laugh in his voice. He looked over at Ava and motioned for her to come up to him "Hey Av, this came for you in the mail." He said as he handed her an envelope  
"Ooh! Who's it from, Daddy?" She took the envelope and kissed him on the cheek before walking away  
"I don't know, it's your mail."

Ava eagerly tore open the envelope, leaving a few small pieces of it on the floor by her feet, and pulled out a folded letter.

"Oops…" She said as she nudged the paper with her socked toe "Sorry Aunt Gina. I'll pick 'em up eventually."  
"You'd better pick the paper up. You don't…"  
"Right I don't see you leaving little pieces of paper on my floor." Ava said in her aunt's tone of voice as she began to read her letter "Oh!" She smiled brightly "It's from Wolfgang!"  
"Wolfgang?" Jess asked with a smirk  
"Um… oops… I um never told you and mom about him, haven't I?"  
"No you haven't." He said while folding his arms across his chest, his smirk still present on his face "Who is he? Someone I should know about? Yo Bam, I think we need to get out bats out just in case." He teased  
"Why? Another one of Ava's no-good0boyfriends coming around? Didn't those boys hear what we did to her last boyfriend?" He chuckled before making a motion with his arms as if he were swinging a baseball bat  
"Daddy! Uncle Bam!"  
"What? Well that boy should have known better, not to go breaking my daughter's heart like he did. So who's this "Wolfgang" kid?"  
"Wolfgang's not a kid, Daddy, he's this guy at school and… shut up! You're embarrassing me!"  
"Oh I am not! I just want to know who he is. That's all."  
"He's my boyfriend, all right?"  
"A boyfriend?" Bam asked, going up to his niece "Who told you, you could have one of those?"  
"Uncle Bam! You're terrible. I know I haven't told you or mom about him, but this is exactly why I didn't. You always embarrass me, or do something to drive the guy away. And I did not appreciate you and Uncle Bam going after Bobby with those bats, and banging his car up with them. I could have handled that situation myself." She turned her eyes towards the letter and began to read "He's coming here to visit me before the new semester starts! Why didn't he just tell me over the phone?"  
"Where is he now?" Stacey asked while snatching her sister's letter away  
"Hey!" Ava took the letter back "After the semester ended he went back home to Finland for the summer."  
Bam arched an eyebrow "Finland, huh?"  
"Yeah he's a foreign exchange student. Oh, Uncle Bam can I borrow your Lambo to pick him up at the airport?"  
"My Lambo? No way."  
"You Hummer?"  
"No!"  
"Your Mercedes?" She asked with a pout  
Bam groaned, not being able to resist his niece "Alright you can borrow the Mercedes to pick him up. But you go straight to the airport, pick him up, and come straight back here, you got that?"  
"Yes. Thank you! So can I have the keys?" She extended her palm  
"What? Now?"  
"Yeah his letter said that he'll be here around 3:00 today and it's going on 2:30 now. So, keys?"  
"They're on he hook."  
"Great! Thanks!" She gave him a hug around the neck and a kiss on the cheek before bouncing away to get the keys


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

Glomb and his son Darren were in the back yard putting together the finishing touched of what appeared to be a set for a talk show of some sort. Glomb stood back and wiped the sweat off of his forehead onto the back of his arm as he gazed upon their handy work.

"What exactly is this for, Darren?"  
"I'm not allowed to say."  
"But I'm your father and I helped you build this. You have to tell me something about why we built it."  
"Nope. It's a surprise."  
"Fair enough then. If you need any more help out here, just give me a holler."  
"Ok dad."

Darren looked at the set they had built and Glomb walked back to the house. Christene came up to him, carrying her camera bag, and stopped to look at the set.

"Oh Darren it's perfect!" She gave him a kiss on the cheek and then sat the bag on the ground  
"Dad helped. Check it out; we set up a curtain and a desk for Nick. Just like a talk show set."  
"Nick'll love it. He's finally getting his own show that he wanted. There's only one thing missing."  
"What's that?"  
"We need a sign." She pointed up above the stage  
Darren smacked himself in the forehead "Oh yeah! I was going to make one but I didn't know what to put on it."  
"What to you mean you didn't know what to put on it? Put the name of the show!"  
"Yeah I know… but what's this show going to be called?"  
"Hmmm… good question…"  
"Ok… so where's everyone else?"  
"That's another good question."  
Darren rolled his eyes "Well my dad and I didn't just slave away, working our asses off building this thing just for them to not show up!"  
She let out a small laugh "Darren relax. We're going to get a lot of use out of it. You'll see that your effort wont be wasted." She said before giving him a kiss

Bam walked into the kitchen and stood behind Gina, placing his chin on her shoulder and his hands on her hips. He breathed in her sweet scent, which was a mixture of herbal shampoo and apple scented body spray. She smiled and twitched as she felt his unshaven cheek against her neck and cheek.

"That tickles. You need to shave, Bam."  
"I know." He said as he moved her closer to his body

She sat the knife she held in her hand or the counter next to the cake she had been frosting before her husband interrupted her. Bam turned her around to face him and then gave her a kiss on her neck.

"Bam… if you keep this up I won't be able to finish your cake for tomorrow."  
"It can wait a little bit." He said as he kissed her neck again  
"But it's _been _waiting. And at this rate I won't have it done until after your birthday."  
"Hmmm… alright." He said, letting her go. He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed "Mmm… what else did you make? It smells good."  
"I only made your cake. All I had time for. But Stacey made a batch of brownies and they're on the table over there."  
"Oh I love her brownies." He replied as he made his way over to the table  
"I know you do." She began to frost the cake again "A little _too _much."  
He reached for a brownie "What's that supposed to mean?"  
"You know what it means. Ever since you hit 40, you've let yourself go. And you know you want to get rid of that belly of yours."  
Bam sighed and dropped his hand to her side "Yeah I know."  
"So why don't you, instead of a brownie, eat an apple instead? There's some fresh ones in that bowl."  
"Nah I'm not hungry."  
"But you were going to eat a _brownie _."  
"So?"

Gina smirked at her husband and then he rolled his eyes. This caused her to laugh

"What's do Goddamn funny?"  
"You."  
"What about me?"  
"It's just, sometimes, the way you act, I don't know whether I'm talking to my husband or my son."  
"Yeah whatever."  
"See! That's _exactly _how Dyllan would answer!"  
"Is that where he got it from?"  
"That and so many other things."

After a while everyone was outside speculating what this stage in the yard had been built for, all except for those who were involved with it. Ava showed up at long last and returned the car keys to her uncle.

"What the fuck took you so long?" He asked as he took the keys from her  
"I um… actually we kind of got stopped by a mob of fans. It's not easy being the daughter of a famous drummer, or the niece of a famous asshole for that matter." She finished with a grin  
Bam smirked "Yeah I suppose not. So it's the car in one piece at least?"  
"Yeah it is. Don't worry; I wouldn't have done anything to harm one of your precious cars, Uncle Bam."  
"Well Good, I sure hope you wouldn't. By the way where's this boyfriend of yours that you went to pick up?"  
"Oh here he comes. He just stopped inside to drop his bags off."

Bam looked toward the house and his jaw dropped. He could not believe his eyes once he saw the young man who was approaching them. He was thin with almost a feminine build to his body. His long dark hair was wavy and dirty looking, sticking out from under the black wool beanie. Even from a short distance his piercing green eyes could be seen. He was dressed in all black clothing; long coat over a tight tank-top, shiny leather pants that hugged his shape nicely, and black shoes that were nearly hidden by the flare at the bottom of the pant legs. The clothing and his dark hair made his fair skin more evident. Bam had to stop himself from letting out a silent "wow" once the teen had reached him and Ava. The young man took Ava's hand and kissed it lightly while staring into her eyes.

Ava felt her face turn a slight shade of pink before she looked up at Bam "Uncle Bam, this is my boyfriend…"  
"So nice to meet you, Bam." Her boyfriend said as he shook Bam's hand. His voice was deep and he spoke with an accent "I've heard so much about you. I'm Wolfgang Oska."  
"Oh." Bam said, stunned "Yeah nice to meet you Wolfgang."  
"What's the matter Uncle Bam?" Ava asked, noticing Bam's expression and tone of voice "You seem almost… star struck."  
"I do? Oh it's just…" He looked at Wolfgang "You remind me so much of… er… someone I know."  
"Would that happen to be Ville Valo?"  
"Uh yeah how did you know?"  
Wolfgang smirked "I'm not surprised. You see, I don't normally tell people this since they usually figure it out on their own. But," He paused with a slight sigh "Ville is my biological father. Oska is the name that was given to me after my mother got married."  
"Oh I see." Bam said with a slight nod of his head "Not that it matters, but why didn't your mother… um… stay with Ville?"  
"Well… because she learned early on that she wasn't going to have the life she would have wanted with Ville, so she married my adoptive father instead. Or so she told me. To be honest, I just think that was her delicate way of saying that she was just… an eager groupie who wound up getting pregnant." He finished with a shrug of his shoulders and a half of a grin  
Bam chuckled a little, looking at Wolfgang "Well Wolfgang, I don't think you could have picked a better father than Ville."  
"I think you're right. And the man who raised me isn't all that bad either." Wolfgang smiled

Wolfgang put an arm around Ava and they stepped aside to get a better look at the set for the show. Jess walked up to Bam and looked over at his daughter and Wolfgang. Bam could tell by the expression on his brother's face that Jess had an uneasy fatherly protective feeling towards Ava at that moment. Jess nodded his head and pointed in Wolfgang and Ava's direction as he whispered to Bam.

"So who is this Valo impersonator with his arm around my baby girl?"  
Bam grinned with a slight snicker "That's her boyfriend Wolfgang. And he just happens to be Ville's son."  
Jess's eyes widened for a moment before returning to normal size. He looked at Wolfgang and then at Bam and then shook his head.  
"Jess, he seems like a nice kid. You would like him."  
"Yeah, well, he still better be good to my baby girl. I don't want a repeat of what happened the last time." That said, Jess walked away to keep and eye on Ava and Wolfgang from a distance.

Bam shook his head with a laugh to himself once Jess had walked away. There were times when Bam found Jess to be a little too protective of his daughters. But when it came down to it, he knew that he couldn't say any thing to Jess about it. That was because he knew that if it were his daughter dating Ville Valo's son, as much as he adored the man (purely on a close friendship level), he would be really protective of her as well. He stood there for a few more minutes, looking at the set that had been built in his yard. Grinning to himself, he began to reminisce about the days when he and his friends would film their own stunts and skits. Those days of making those movies that led them to be on MTV seemed so long ago. Bam knew that they all missed those days, but now it seemed that they would soon be reliving them, but only with their children at the reigns instead.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter eight

The camera was focused tightly on Jay's face. She grinned into the camera lens and then in a voice that imitated the voice that Bam and Raab would use, she spoke the following phrase:

"Pop can gymnastics…" She said slowly before the camera pulled out to show the rest of her.

Jay stood there in the middle of the yard dressed as a giant blue Pepsi can. She smiled and then started to do cartwheels and somersaults. Once she was dizzy, she stumbles over, falling onto her side. She laughed and then stood up again, looking over to her right.

"I hate Pepsi!" Shouted Jason as he ran at full speed, over to his sister, dressed from head to toe in Coke brand clothing

He tackled her to the ground and the two of them began laughing. Everyone who was watching, including the camera person, went into hysterics over the sight of the two siblings on the ground.

"Ok cut!" Christene said as she wiped a tear from her eye

The very next shot showed a stone-faced Nick Glomb sitting behind the interviewer's desk. He tapped a pencil on the desk and stared directly onto the camera.

"No, that was not just a word from our sponsor. We don't even have sponsors. Everyone who was a prospective sponsor took one look at the rehearsal of the show and ran. It seems that those guys just didn't get our work of art that is this fine show." He grinned and looked towards Jason and Jay (Jay still being in the can costume) "Thanks again for that very funny segment." He looked back at the camera with a serious expression "Very funny indeed. Just look at how much I'm laughing over it. I nearly wet myself from laughing so much." He tapped the desk with his pencil again "There will be more of that later on in the program. But first we have with us, a very special guest. Please welcome all the way from Connecticut… whatever he was doing all the way in that shit hole, we'll never know…" He paused  
"You can't say that!" Came a loud whisper from the director  
"I can't say what?"  
"Shit hole!"  
"What?"  
"Shit hole!"  
"Oh! You mean I can't say shit, or hole?"  
"_ Shit _hole!"  
"Oh!" He laughed "I can't say _shit _! Well shit… I mean fuck… I mean… aw damn it all… anyway, here's Mark Novak."

The "audience" off camera applauded (with the exception of a wise-ass "Boo" from Jason) as the younger, slightly Philippinean -looking version of Novak walked on stage and took his seat next to the desk. He looked toward the "audience" and the camera and gave them a wave and a smile. The applause stopped and then Mark and Nick looked at each other.

"So, Mark, it's nice of you to stop by. Now tell me, what in the hell were you doing in Connecticut any way?"  
"Well I was staying at my mom's house."  
"Oh you mean her pimp let her come in off the corner?"  
Mark rolled his eyes with a slight smirk "Ha ha. Yeah very funny. My mom must be a whore since she slept with my dad at least once, right?"  
"What's the matter with that?"  
"You know, I'm getting real sick of you guys talking shit about my parents like that. Especially my mom."

Mark sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Ok so, Mark, how does it feel to be a bastard?"  
Mark rolled his eyes "I'm not a fucking bastard."  
"Well you were born out of wedlock, right?"  
"Yeah, so?"  
"That makes you a bastard."  
"What the hell is this? Make fun of me and my family day?"  
"If you want it to be."

Mark sighed in frustration and then stood up.

"Mark where are you goin'?" Nick asked  
"If this is all you had me come here for then I'm going back to my dad's house." Mark said as he walked off of the stage, followed by a bunch of "boo's" from the "audience"  
"Aw come on Mark! What are we supposed to do for a guest?"  
"Find someone else!" He answered off camera  
Nick looked into the camera and smiled. He held his hands out toward the direction Mark walked off the stage in.  
"Mark Novak, everyone. Let's give him a hand." The "audience" responded with claps and cheers (and one drawn out "boo" from Jason and a "Mark sucks!" from Dyllan.)  
Mark caught Dyllan's comment and glared at him "Well, at least I'm not still a virgin." He grinned

Everyone else fell silent and looked over at Mark and Dyllan. Dyllan's jaw fell open and his face had turned a deep shade of red. He stared at Mark with wide eyes that were beginning to tear up.

"I… w-why did you say that?" He spoke in a lightly cracking, almost inaudible voice  
"Dyl I'm sorry. I…"  
Dyllan shook his head and turned away "You're not fucking sorry! Fuck you!" He started to run into the house and sensed that everyone was watching him  
Bam ran after him and tried to place a hand on his shoulder, but Dyllan pulled away.  
"Leave me alone!" he ran into the house, slamming the door closed, and rushed upstairs to his room

Bam turned to see his wife behind him.

"What do we do?" He asked quietly  
She placed a hand on his shoulder "Just leave him alone for a little bit and let him calm down."  
Bam sighed and looked toward Dyllan's bedroom window "I feel like I should talk to him."  
Gina nodded "Just give him a few minutes alone first."

Meanwhile Nick stared straight into the camera.

"We'll, um, we'll be back after these messages."  
Christene shut the camera off and whispered to Jason "We can edit that part out." Jason replied with a nod of his head

Bam stepped quietly into Dyllan's room and stood in the doorway. Dyllan sat in the middle of his bed, faced away from the door and holding his knees up to his chest. Bam cleared his throat to get his attention.

"What?"  
"Dyllan can I talk to you?"  
"Yeah I guess…"

Bam walked in further and closed the door. He walked up to the bed and sat down next to Dyllan. About a minute later, after sitting in silence and looking at his son, Bam sighed.

"Dyllan you have no reason to be embarrassed over what happened out there."  
"Dad… I feel like I'm the only one my age who hasn't had sex yet…" He sighed "Why did he have to say that I'm still a virgin in front of everyone? I trusted him not to tell…"  
Bam placed an arm around his son "Dyllan, I'm really sorry this happened. But to be a virgin at 17 isn't the end of the world. A lot of 17-year-olds don't have sex."  
"You did."  
"But that's me. And if you don't have sex now, no one's going to think any different of you." He gave Dyllan's arm a little squeeze "Hey, if anything, people would respect you a lot more than they all ready do."  
Dyllan leaned his head on Bam's shoulder "Yeah I guess so. But there are people in school who would look at me like I'm crazy, or an idiot if they found out that…"  
"Found out what?"  
"If um… if they found out that I'm purposely not having sex yet… that I'm saving myself for when I get married."  
"Oh…" He said, impressed "Well if they do treat you like that, then they're the ones who are idiots. I'm really proud of you, Dyl."  
"You are?"  
"Of course I am. No one's ever given you the idea of waiting until you're married; you came up with that all on your own. I personally don't know how you're able to do that… or some of the other things you do… But all of this is what makes you who you are, and I wouldn't want you to be anything other than yourself."  
"Thanks dad." He said, giving Bam a hug  
"You're welcome." He patted his back "So you feel better now?"  
Dyllan nodded his head "Yeah…" He pulled away from Bam and looked at him "I guess I needed that talk."  
"Glad I could give it to you."

Bam grinned at his son. As Dyllan looked at him, Bam saw the much younger version of himself shine through. Everyone thought it was uncanny how much Dyllan looked like Bam, but at that moment the comparison was even more evident. Then Bam looked at Dyllan again and saw him as a little boy again. That little boy seemed to have vanished a long time ago, but he came back at that moment. The same little boy that Bam would go to, to fix his boo-boo's and make sure that no monsters were hiding in the closet or under the bed before putting him to sleep at night. The moment that Dyllan let Bam put his arm around him and talk to him to make him feel better, that little boy had come back again.

"Dad, what are you looking at?"  
"Oh… nothing…"  
Dyllan stood up and shook his head "Dad you were out of it for a little bit there. You feeling ok?"  
"Yeah." Bam grinned, with a nod of his head "Yeah I'm fine." He stood up and walked over to the door with Dyllan. _Just remembering someone I though I had lost forever… _He thought as he looked at Dyllan one last time before they left the room.

Dyllan went back outside with everyone else. Bam was about to go outside too, when Gina came in and went up to him.

"So… is he ok?"  
"Yeah." He nodded with a grin "He's ok."

He pulled her closer to him and gave her a hug.

"Dyllan really impressed me in there, Gina."  
"He did? How?"  
"Just… some of the things he was telling me." He let out a happy sigh "We've raised a wonderful son, and I could not be more proud of him."  
Gina looked into Bam's eyes and smiled softly "Sounds like the two of you had quite the talk in there."  
"Yeah, we did." He smiled back at her and gave her a kiss "Come on, let's go back out there and check out the rest of the kids's show."

He took her by the hand and led her back outside.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

After sitting around to watch the edited version of the show from the day before, everyone decided that it couldn't have been a better time to start celebrating Bam's birthday. They did the usual birthday thing of presents and cake and then they all sat around (though some were trying out a couple of Bam's birthday presents) and carried on a conversation. Some parts of their conversation were very reminiscent of the old "Radio Bam" days. At one point the adults sat back and listened to their kids talking, and realized that not much was different between the two groups. Bam leaned back in his chair, watching and listening to the kids' with a soft smirk. He turned to Dico with the same expression.

"Hey Dic, I just thought of something."  
"Huh?"  
"This might sound like the most random thought, but I just remembered of the time when Gina was still pregnant with Dyllan, Katie and you had recently found out that she was pregnant with Jason, and one of Novak's baby mamas, Lucy I mean, was pregnant with Mark."  
"Yeah what about it?"  
"Well remember when I was like, if we all have boys, let's do each other a favor and not give them the same fucking name."  
Dico smiled with a slight laugh "Yeah I do, and then I was like, we've all ready had to suffer growing up with the same name. And it's not even that great of a name. I mean what kind of name is Brandon? It sounds like some kind of…"  
"Old person's cereal! Yeah I remember you saying that! And it's so true too!"  
Dico laughed "Yeah. And I'm pretty sure our kids are glad they don't have the same name too."

Bam turned and saw Raab and Dunn by him.

"Hey how long have you been standing there?"  
"I've been here since 'old people cereal'." Dunn replied  
"And I've been here since 'Novak's baby mamas." Raab answered with a slight smirk  
Bam laughed a little and looked at Dico "Did you notice them there?"  
Dico smiled "Yeah I did but I didn't say anything." He laughed  
"Why not?"  
"I wanted to see how long it would take you to notice them."  
"Oh…" bam shook his head and turned back to Dunn and Raab "So what's been going on with your hot-ass wives? I haven't seen much of either of them."  
"Well… Lilly just has been very busy with work. She was going to try to stop by for a while to see you, but… yeah she couldn't get off work." Raab explained  
Dunn nodded as if to confirm what Raab said "Oh I can't believe we haven't said anything about it yet, but Cember and I just found out that she's pregnant."  
"Oh really?" Bam asked with a smile  
"Yeah it's been a while since her last pregnancy, and we're really hoping that she holds onto this on this time."  
"I hope it works out for you two. Did you ever find out what caused the miscarriage the last time?"  
Dunn shook his head "No. We're not really worried about it since the doctor said it was most likely just a fluke thing."  
"Wow… congratulations!"  
"Thanks." Dunn smirked "So how has your birthday been for you?"  
"It's been pretty cool so far. I can't complain. It would have been nice if Novak could have made it, but oh well. I mean I still have other great friends here, and our kids are just brilliant. We never would have come up with a show like theirs. I really think that they topped us with it."  
"Yeah they all really work well together. And Christene sure as hell isn't worried about that broken arm of hers holding her back." Raab said with a proud grin "I'm really surprised at how good she is behind that camera."  
"Raab you're talking about her like she ran the whole show." Dunn said with a laugh  
"I am not! Jeeze can't a guy be proud of his kid?"  
"Ok before this conversation gets more boring, or the two of you start bickering like married people," Dico said, pointing to Raab and Dunn "I say we move on to something much more entertaining than chit-chatting."  
"I'm all ready bored with talking." Bam remarked

Shortly after Bam's comment, the party picked up again once someone did something that set them all in an uproar of side-splitting hysterics. Everything else that happened that night seemed like the good old days of when Bam and his friend were in their 20s. The days before they all got married and had kids. But soon, like all good things, their fun had come to an end and those who came over to celebrate Bam's 44th birthday started to leave for home.

The teens caught Jason and Stacey near the backdoor saying goodbye to each other. As Jason moved in closer to her for a kiss, they were interrupted by catcalls from the onlookers.

"Ooooohhh! Kiss her DiCamillo!"  
"Don't make me kick you in the nuts again, _Novak_." Jason replied to Mark, causing Mark to quickly close his mouth "That's what I thought." Jason said with a nod before turning back to Stacey. He lowered his voice so only Stacey could hear him "So you call me tomorrow and maybe we'll set up a date."  
Stacey grinned "Ok that sounds nice."  
"You have my number, right?"  
"Yeah I do. It's programmed in my phone."  
"Good." He glanced back at the others who were still watching from a distant corner, and then looked at Stacey. He leaned in again, giving her a kiss, which resulted in an 'Awwww….' From the others "Shut the fuck up! It's not like that was the first time I kissed her!"  
"We know. I still have the tape of that one night. And as I recall, you did more than kiss her, Jase." Christene said

Jason and Stacey rolled their eyes.

"Call me." Jason said softly to her  
"I will." She kissed him on the cheek "Bye. It was nice seeing you again." Stacey turned and walked out the door, with Jason watching her with every step she made  
Ava walked up to Jason, holding the hand of Wolfgnag, and placed her free hand on Jason's shoulder.  
"So you and my sister are going to give it another shot?"  
"Um… yeah I guess…" he tried not to blush  
"Make sure you learn how to get her bra off this time." She said with a wink before she and Wolfgang walked out the door  
"Yeah very funny." Jason rolled his eyes  
"What's this about him not being able to get her bra off?" Whispered Wolfgang  
"Oh that's right, you haven't seen the tape yet." Ave whispered back "We're going to have to ask Christene to let us borrow it."

Once by one they all left, and then the four Margeras were left to quietly unwind from the past couple days. Dyllan grinned and walked up to his parents.

"What's that look for?" Bam asked his grinning son  
"Oh nothing…"  
Gina raised an eyebrow "Nothing? Dyllan you never come up to us grinning like that when it's just 'nothing'. Now whatever you have planned to do, break, explode, or whatever thing that would cause harm to or make someone mad… just tell us what is it and maybe we'll tell you not to do it."  
Bam looked at her "Why would we tell him not to do it, _Ape_?"  
Gina rolled her eyes "Whatever. Just… what are you grinning about?"  
"I just wanted to tell you that this show that we were doing wasn't something we came up with on the spur of the moment just for fun."  
"It does seem like you guys put a lot of thought into it." Bam said  
"We did. We've actually been secretly pitching ideas to MTV and we told them we were going to film a pilot episode. Now tomorrow I'm going to make a phone call and tell them that we have our pilot ready for them to review."  
"Oh really." Gina said, impressed  
"Yeah we wanted to keep this a surprise for all of you."  
"Oh wow… well I hope you guys get your show." Bam said with a smile "So if you were trying to keep this a surprise, then why did you tell us before you got your show?'  
"Um…" Dyllan shrugged "Happy birthday…?"  
Bam smirked "Well thanks, son."  
"Welcome." He nodded "Well I think I'm going to head up to bed now. G'night." He turned and headed towards the stairs  
"Night Dyl!" Gina said before the phone rang "I'll get it."

Gina went to get the phone and then brought it over to Bam.

"It's for you."  
Bam took the phone from her "Hello?" he said, still smiling "Yes this is he…" He turned away from Gina. As he listened his broad smiled faded into a serious expression. For a moment he couldn't speak and then he let out a sigh "Yeah… I can come down and identify the body…" He said before hanging up  
"What's the matter?"  
"I'll be back.' He said before handing her the phone and walking away  
Bam grabbed his keys and walked out the door, without saying another word.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter ten

It was a little later on that night when Bam came home. He entered the lounge heavyhearted and still with his mind full of thoughts. He sat next to Gina on the couch with a heavy sigh, staring off into space.

"What's the matter Bam?"  
"Huh?" He looked towards her "Oh it's just… I have no idea what I'm supposed to be feeling right now."  
"What do you mean?" She asked, moving a little closer to him  
Bam sighed and shook his head slightly "I don't know if I even want to talk about it right now." He stood up "I think I'm going to go to bed." He said as he started walking towards the stairs

The next morning Bam came downstairs where he found Dyllan sitting at the kitchen table. Dyllan sipped on a cup of tea and flipped through a magazine, and he quickly and briefly turned his eyes up towards his father before looking back at the page he was reading.

"Mornin' dad."  
"Mornin'. Hey, Dyl, have you seen your sister?"  
"Uh, yeah, I think I saw her by the fireplace in the pirate bar."  
"Ok thanks."

Bam turned and headed into the pirate bar. He stood back by the stairs for a moment before he went up to Samantha.

"Hey Sam…" He said softly  
She looked up at him, putting the book she was reading down beside her.  
"Oh hi dad."  
"Listen, Sam, I need to talk to you." He sat down next to her "Last night I got a call about your mom."  
"What about her? Did something happen?"  
Bam looked down for a second "She was in a car accident…"  
Samantha let out a small gasp "Oh God… Is she ok?"  
Bam shook his head "I'm sorry baby… She didn't make it. The coroner said that she died on impact."

Samantha looked down and choked back tears. Bam sighed and then pulled her into a hug.

"Sam, baby, I'm so sorry." He rubbed her back a little "I'm here for you."  
"Thanks dad." She said softly

She sniffed and buried her face into his chest. He held her close as she cried, and soothingly patted her back and stroked her hair. It was hard for him to look at her right then, partly because it hurt him to see her crying like she was, and partly because she had always looked so much like Jenn.

A couple days later…

Gina came into the room fastening an earring. She had on a simple black dress that came down a little past her knees. She looked over at the bed before going over to the closet to get her shoes. Bam lay across the bed with his bare feet touching the floor. He gazed up towards the ceiling, not moving a muscle except to blink every once in a while.

"Bam, you should be getting ready."  
"I know." He said, emotionless

She looked over at him and then at the bed. Beside him was the clothes he was going to wear at the funeral and that he was supposed to be getting changed into at that moment. Instead of getting dressed in those clothes, however, he remained in the same clothes he had slept in the night before. Gina rolled her eyes and walked over to the bed where he lay. She grabbed hold of one of his hands and attempted to pull him up into sitting position.

"Come on Bam, you have to get dressed."  
"Why should I get dressed for something that I had no intention on going to?"  
"Bam stop acting like a little kid and get dressed. If not for yourself, then do it for Samantha. She's really counting on you being there for her."  
Bam sighed "Yeah I know. But it's really weird for me to go to the funeral of someone I haven't been on good terms with for the past few years of her life. Especially since the last time we spoke to each other, I wound up bitching her out and she left in a hurry because she was so pissed off at me."  
She put an arm around him "I know that's got to be hard to deal with, but you've get to remember that you and Jenn had a lot of good times together, and love for each other. You made an incredible and beautiful daughter with her. You two were the closest friends since you were kids. You have a lot more good memories of her than bad ones. That's all you should really think about now, not the bad stuff."  
"Yeah I guess you're right."  
She kissed him on the cheek "Now, can you please get dressed before we run late?"  
"Alright…"

Bam slowly but surely got dressed. Once dressed, he went behind Gina, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"You look beautiful by the way." He said softly in her ear  
She turned to face him head on with a slight smile on her face "Thank you." She stepped away some, holding onto his arms, and looked him up and down "You look really handsome."  
Bam looked at himself and tugged at his clack dress shirt "Oh yeah I guess I do clean up pretty nice."  
"When you want to." She smirked "Now come on, let's go see if the kids are ready."

Bam nodded his head and then the two of them left their bedroom. Dyllan sat talking on his cell phone. He stood up and walked pass his parents into another room as he continued his phone conversation. A few minutes later Bam, Gina and Samantha heard Dyllan let out a happy yell. He came back into the room and did a cartwheel, landing on is feet right in front of Bam with a big smile.

"What was that all about?" Bam asked with a hint of a laugh in his voice  
"I was just talking to someone from MTV. CKYNG got picked up for a full season!" He beamed  
"CKYNG?" Gina asked  
"Yeah that's what we named the show." Samantha said with a slight grin "Camp Kill Yourself: The Next Generation."  
"Yeah, and we're going to start filming more episodes next week!" Dyllan said, nearly bouncing in his spot from excitement  
"Wow that's great, guys!" Bam said with a smile "I'm proud of you." He looked at Dyllan and let out a laugh "Jeeze, I know you're excited, but it looks like you're about to jump out of your skin and run around the room."  
Dyllan laughed "Even if I did, it would be a good thing to add to the show."  
Gina rolled her eyes and shook her head with a grin "Ok al this aside, we really should be going now."  
Bam let out a little sigh and nodded his head "Yeah, come on let's go."

He grabbed his keys and ushered his family out to the car. The car ride to the funeral was spent mostly in silence; a rare occasion for the Margera family. Bam drove, gazing straight ahead of him, deep in reflected thought. At one point, Gina reached over and placed her hand over his hand that was on the gear shift. She patted his hand a little, drawing his attention over to her. She then gave him a slight nod of the head and a look that let him know that she was trying to tell him that everything was going to be all right.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The room began to fill with dark colors and solemn faces as everyone arrived at the funeral. At the front of the room was a closed cream-colored casket with red and yellow roses arranged on top of it. All the seats were empty at this point because everyone was greeting and talking to one another before the funeral was to begin.

Dunn, his wife December, and Brianne went up to where Bam and Gina stood. December placed a hand on Bam's arm.

"How are you holding up, Bam?"

Bam let out a slight sigh "I'm doing all right. As far as that goes right now I guess."

December nodded her head and looked at her husband. Dunn glanced over at the casket and then at Bam.

"This is really weird. She was always right there with us. A lot of the time she'd try to get us guys to slow down and not be as much of the crazy idiots that we were, well still are, and then she's the first to go."

Bam looked at the casket "Yeah I know…"

Brianne cleared her throat "So um… where are Dyllan and Samantha?"

"Oh they're in the next room with the other kids." Gina said

"Ok thanks."

Brianne walked away from the adults and went into the other room to be with her friends. Raab and his wife Lilly walked up to them and stood next to Bam. Lilly and December looked at each other and gave each other an uneasy, and somewhat fake, smile before looking away.

"So here we all are." Raab said "Just the other day we were celebrating a birthday. Now today we're here for a funeral. Funny the way that life works."

"That's pretty profound coming from a guy like you, Raab." Bam grinned

"Yeah I have my moments." He laughed a little

In another room close by, all the teenagers gathered together. Mark entered the room with a young woman on either side of him. The others took notice to his presence right away.

"So Mark, why'd you bring dates to a funeral?" Dyllan asked, pointing to the two girls

Jason laughed "Yeah it's bad enough that you would bring one date to a funeral, let alone two."

Everyone except Mark and the two girls with him laughed. Mark rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"You guys are sick."

"How does that make them sick?" Asked Christene "You mean you wouldn't date them?"

"Oh yes. I'd love to date my little brother." The older of the two girls said sarcastically

"Little brother?"

"Yeah." Mark said. He looked at the two girls and then at his friends "You didn't know that I had sisters?"

"Now that you mention is, Mark, I do see similarities between the three of you."

"Well we all did come from the same mother." The other, younger, girl said

"Yeah, guys, this is my sister Sami and my other sister Lizzie. Sami, Lizzie, these are my friends Darren, Nick, Jason, Jay, Jade, Christene, Brianne, Dyllan, Samantha, Stacey and Ava."

"Not that I'm complaining," Jason said "But why did you bring your sisters here? They didn't know Jenn."

"Well I'm here more as a baby sitter actually." Said Sami with a slight roll of the eyes "Mom wanted to make sure that Mark didn't hit on any of the women while they're grieving. Since she knows that he's so much like his father. Which is scary."

"Yeah whatever." Mark mumbled

"Mom said that, 'Just because you're 17, doesn't mean that you don't need a baby sitter anymore.'" Lizzie grinned at her younger brother

Mark rolled his eyes while everyone else laughed.

"Yeah! Mark's dad was 27 and my dad hired a baby sitter for him!" Dyllan said with a laugh "Face it, Mark, you're just like your dad!"

"Look who's talking." Mark snorted "I have some news for you guys. We are ALL just like our parents."

This caused a momentary stunned silence followed by a burst of laughter among the entire group. Their fun, however, was quickly broken up once someone came in and reminded them that they were at a funeral that was about to begin.

The funeral began and the minister up front spoke for a few minutes. It was the typical funeral service except, instead of one person giving an elegy, many people went up to give their fondest memories about Jenn. Dunn, Raab, Rake, Jess and even Novak went up to share what they remembered most about Jenn. Then came Dico's turn to speak, and everyone prepared themselves for what they thought would be a typical hilarious, off-the-wall Dico speech. But he wound up surprising everyone by showing off a very serious and very unexpected side of him. But he wasn't completely stone-faced during his speech, and he did allow a little bit of humor to come out once in a while.

"Jenn loved being around the insanity for the most part, and usually wasn't afraid to join in on what us guys were doing. She was real tough, and much more adult than the rest of us. She really was the adult figure that we needed in our group of friends, but she wasn't a parent to us. She knew that what we needed wasn't another parent, but rather someone who would take some of the edge off of our insanity. As much fun as it is to be insane, it is still nice and needed to have a glimmer of sanity waiting for us at the end of the race. I don't know if she knew that I appreciated her sanity, but I did, and still do. After all," He paused to wipe a couple tears away and then he let out a small laugh

"I can talk but I can't see." This caused everyone else to laugh a little "Any way, as I was saying, we would and should have died many times over a long time ago. I still wonder how we all survived as long as we have. But then I remind myself that we survived because of that little bit of sanity in our lives. And now I look around and see our kids, and I laugh. I laugh because it's the only thing that keeps me from running for my life. Those kids are nuts; neither of us would trade them for all the world, but they're nuts. And it's no wonder they're the way that they are since they're just like us. Except they just might be a little more grown up than we are. I still don't think that we've grown up." He laughed "Watching our kids, and seeing this insanity coming from them, makes me appreciate the sanity that Jenn provided even more. And I hope that these kids of ours find their sanity like we found in Jenn."

Dico sat down and then people turned to look at Bam. Bam knew that they were looking at him and expecting him to go up and talk about Jenn. He felt like sinking deep into his seat, hoping that it would stop everyone from looking at him, but he knew that, that wouldn't work. Gina placed her hand on top of his, and gave it a little squeeze. Bam took a breath and then walked up to the podium. Once up there he gazed around the room at everyone for a second before turning his eyes down.

"I um… I wasn't sure if I wanted to say anything about Jenn, or if I would be able to. I don't even know what to say now, but I feel like I should say something." He paused and took a breath. "Just about everyone here should know that Jenn and I, for the past few years, haven't exactly had the greatest relationship. We fought with each other almost every time we were around each other. As weird as it may sound for me to say this, but I would love to be able to fight with Jenn again. We never hated each other, even while we were fighting. We fought all the time, even when we were together and in love. That's the thing; our love for each other was so strong that we didn't know how to express it. To us "Fuck off" meant "I love you". We met as kids, and acted like kids as we got older and closer together. What I mean is we were always happy to be together as long as we were having fun, but once it came time to express our love for each other, I'd obnoxiously pull her hair and run away, and she'd throw me to the ground and make me eat dirt. And then we would go behind each other's back and tell our friends that the other one had cooties; just like the little kids we were when we met." He smiled with a laugh. He looked back at the casket for a moment before looking back at everyone else

"Jenn, as you all may know, was a mother of two beautiful daughters. One of which is my own daughter with her. Both girls are amazing in their own way and are both destined for great things. Jenn would be beaming of pride for her daughters, and should be. And even though she never really acknowledged it to him, she did care about my son, and I'm sure she's sorry for how she's treated him and spoke to him. I think that she always seemed like she didn't like him, not because he's not her son, but because he's too much like his father." They all shared a short laugh "But any way," He turned to the casket "Jenn, I love you, and always have. I'm really honored to have ever known you, and I'm really sorry for any bad feelings we've had for each other the last time we ever spoke. Samantha gave me the birthday card that you were trying to give me that I was too much of a selfish immature prick to accept from you. I read what you had to say in it and I really appreciate it. I'll keep those words in my heart."

Bam stepped away from the podium and went back to his seat. When he sat down, Gina put her arm around him and kissed him on the cheek.

"That was really nice what you said up there." She said softly

"Thanks. It just came to me right as I was saying it. But I meant every word."

"I'm sure Jenn would have loved it."

"Yeah she would."

"So what did she write to you in your birthday card?"

"It's private." He grinned and then kissed her on the cheek

Once everyone had spoken, the minister said one last thing to close the funeral. Everyone passed the casket one by one to pay their last respects to Jenn. Dico placed a hand lightly on the casket and whispered.

"It's been real, Jenn." He paused "For definitely real. I don't know where you're headed, but if you happen to run into Vito there, tell him I said "Yo" and that one day I'll stop by with a case of Bud to share with him." He stepped away from the casket

"And tell Vito that if Dico shows up with a case of Bud, and not all the beer is there, I probably drank it." Raab whispered to the casket and then grinned at Dico knowing that he heard him "Gonna miss ya, Jenn." He walked away

Dunn walked up to the casket "Jenn," He said softly "I just wanted to apologize for Dico and Raab for being idiots. But you were probably expecting that. Any way, I love you, and I'll miss the hell out of you. I'll meet ya on the other side."

Rake was next to speak to Jenn "Well I guess this is goodbye, Jenn. You were… you were all right. You pissed me off and picked on me the least out of the group. I've always appreciated that."

When Rake stepped away, Novak went up to the casket "Hey babe. You were awesome. When I was living with Bam, and you two were together, you were sort of like my mom in a way. I guess that makes Bam my dad." He laughed "And you'll be happy to know that I didn't drink, smoke, or hit on any broads while I was here. Love ya Jenn."

After Novak walked away, Bam stepped up to the casket. He placed a hand on it and held it there for a second as a tear slowly rolled down his face.

"Jenn… I cherish every moment we had together, including the bad ones. We've been through a lot together during all the years we've known each other." He took one of the red roses from the top of the casket and put it behind his ear "I will always love you and never forget you." He patted the casket and stepped away

The pallbearers went up to the casket and carried it out of the building. Everyone else stood outside in two rows; one on either side of the pathway that lead to the hearse. Bam stood with one arm around Gina and the other arm around Samantha, with Dyllan right behind him with a hand on his back near his shoulder. The pallbearers came out with the casket and put it into the back of the hearse and then closed the doors. They all stood back and watched the hearse drive away. To some that would appear to be the end of one life, but to others it is more like a whole new beginning. For when one door closes, another opens; and these doors were just beginning to open.


End file.
